


pareidolia

by pseudocitrus



Category: Tokyo Ghoul, Tokyo Ghoul:re
Genre: Angst, Cute Animal, F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-29
Updated: 2015-09-29
Packaged: 2018-04-23 23:50:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,326
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4896994
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pseudocitrus/pseuds/pseudocitrus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Haise finds a rabbit on the streets of Tokyo.</p>
            </blockquote>





	pareidolia

**Author's Note:**

> this fic is a small inspired by [an art](http://like-da.tumblr.com/post/128767903370/au-where-touka-chan-is-killed-by-ccg-reincarnate) by [like-da](http://tmblr.co/mvXnL_P98Ak-PNVuGpx1NMw) :) (that link contains spoilers for the plot of this fic, if it matters.) anyway — like-da has such a cute drawing style, please check it out!
> 
> and, i hope you are having a good day~

_There’s…there’s no way that a rabbit would just be in the streets of Tokyo._

Absolutely none.

Rabbits belong where there are…plants, right? Grass? That they eat?

Yet…there it is. A little mud-colored shape, with red eyes. Huddled, beneath a soggy cardboard box.

 _It’s a rat,_ Haise tells himself, but it doesn’t run when he approaches — only cringes, further into the shadows.

“Hey there,” Haise calls softly, and it backs away, ineffectually, bumping into the wall of a building.

Its ears are flat against its body, but large.

It’s definitely a rabbit.

“Where’s your family?” Haise asks, and it answers only with a shiver. Haise looks left and right, and sees no sign of any other rabbits.

After that, he doesn’t know why he…

Well…no. He does know.

It’s because the poor thing is drenched and he remembers reading that rabbits die easily of hypothermia.

It’s because he’s also aware — though he can’t remember the book that he read this one from — that rabbits die when they are alone.

Mostly, it’s because it’s been raining, nonstop, ever since he emerged from Cochlea a week ago.

“Let me help you out,” Haise murmurs.

He reaches. The rabbit bites and kicks, ineffectually, and quickly expends its energy and slumps into his curled fingers. Its body is cold and wet and trembling violently. He unbuttons his overcoat, and tucks the rabbit inside, holding it up with his arm. On the way home, it finally stops shaking, and for a little bit, he fears the worst.

But, she’s only fallen asleep.

:::

He washes her with a warm, soapy cloth. Her small body is so caked with grime it’s like she was spat out into existence by a gutter. After some careful ministrations, it turns out the rabbit is white.

“Are you gonna keep her?” Saiko asks, carefully.

“Probably not,” Haise answers. “I’m sure that she has someone already that cares a lot about her.”

It’s the most he has said in seven days and Saiko seems cheered.

“Well, will you keep her if you don’t find an owner?”

“I don’t know,” Haise admits. The rabbit is so thin. He holds a carrot up to her mouth and watches as she paws at her face and chews contentedly.

“You should!” Saiko says. She pauses. And then, more quietly: “Um…so…how are you doing, Maman? Your…stomach’s okay?”

“It’s fine,” Haise replies. He rubs at his face briefly, and continues holding the carrot out as the rabbit nibbles.

“Does it taste good?” Haise asks, and the rabbit pauses, to blink at him. Her jaws work furiously.

 _What the hell do you think,_ he imagines it saying, and for the first time in a while, he almost laughs.

:::

He asks Saiko to draw him some posters, which she does, begrudgingly.

 _Found,_ the poster says. _Tiny white rabbit (?). Not that cute. Sickly._

 _“_ Saiko-chan,” he groans, but she refuses to change it, so he has to do it himself. He goes through the effort, too, of hanging the posters all around the ward, and the office.

Intentionally, he doesn’t get a book, but one ends up on his desk anyway.  _Rabbits: How to Keep Them Happy and Hoppy._

“It’s yours,” Akira says, when he tries to return it. It would be easy for him to discard it, and, he doesn’t.

Days pass. No one comes forward to claim the rabbit, though he checks the posters every day for notes or signs that they have been read. Often, they are torn down, and he has to replace them.

In the meantime, at least, the rabbit seems happy in the Chateau. She is curious about everything, and gets along well with everyone, even Urie, who sometimes pats her head before rubbing a moist towel over his gloves. She is surprisingly affectionate and even more well-behaved than the “ideal rabbit” described in the book.

Days pass. The rabbit comes to wait for him to return home, peering up expectantly from the Chateau entryway, and he begins to frequent vegetable stands on the way back from work. Since she is always darting around underfoot, he starts to carry her on his shoulder whenever he prepares dinner, or else teases her by trapping her in a coffee mug while she squirms and chirps with irritation. He also fashions a bed for her, which remains empty; she prefers to sit on his chest or against his neck as he reads, and at night burrows into his pale hair. He adds hay and various necessities to their shopping list.

Eventually, he stops replacing the posters.

:::

“You should name her,” Saiko says.

“Mmm,” Haise says.

“Well, if you can’t think of one, I can name her!” Saiko offers. “I’ve named a lot of things. I can come up a really cute one.”

“I don’t know,” Haise says, frowning, and Saiko shrugs.

“Okay, okay. Rabbit-chan it is, then.”

By now, _Rabbits: How to Keep Them Happy and Hoppy_ has obvious creases and a worn binding and a big gnawed-off corner on the page that suggests saving treats for special occasions only. He searches every chapter for something that says “ _Rabbits will die if they’re alone,”_ but finds only a very strong recommendation that rabbits have some partner to bond with.

“I think she already bonded with _you_ , Maman,” Saiko laughs when he comes down one day with the rabbit balanced somehow on his head.

“She can’t really bond with me,” Haise says. “We’re not the same. We’re in totally different worlds.”

But it doesn’t stop him from chatting with the rabbit at night, when he is in his room, catching his breath and unwilling to force himself back into fitful sleep. It doesn’t quite stop the rabbit, either, from tilting her head and flicking her ears at him, like she really understands.

“I don’t know what’s the matter with me,” he whispers.

“I don’t think…I mean, this life that I have…”

“I don’t know if there’s anything I can do,” he says. “Anymore.”

The rabbit is so warm against his palm. Haise squeezes her, gently.

“I’ll get you a partner sometime,” Haise promises in a mutter. “But in the meantime, I’ll protect you, okay?”

:::

Protecting her, though, requires that he get back to work.

He yells — gulps air — clutches the sheets, and then tries to remain still, so he won’t crush the rabbit. The vision of glassy red pupils is like a poker stabbed into his brain; his hand pats the bed until he finds the rabbit’s soft back, until he replaces the image in his mind with the large scarlet eyes staring at him now.

“I’m okay,” he tells her. “I’m okay.”

The rabbit crawls into his lap; he lifts it up, in his arms. Her pulse is so fast, so close to the surface of her skin. She’s resilient, has survived a lot already in her short life, and his family is nice to her — but — but she is _his_. What is she going to do if he doesn’t make it home one day?

He forces his eyes across the room, to the glossy suitcase standing upright at the far end. There’s only one handprint on it, on the handle, from the day that he carried it here. The surface of it doesn’t even bear a scratch; just one dull smudge, where he swiped a warm, soapy cloth across the vomit.

His stomach lurches, but he manages to keep everything in.

He has to do this. For all the people relying on him.

“And for you too, Touka-chan,” he murmurs.

Of course, the rabbit says nothing. But he can almost imagine her rolling her eyes at him. She presses her nose up against his fingers and he lies down again. This time, he doesn’t dream.

:::

There must have been test runs after it was made, but still, everyone is amazed. Somehow, in Haise’s hands, the quinque is different.

“It’s _beautiful,_ ” Akira breathes, and Haise has to agree.


End file.
